


We Don't Match

by BurntKloverfield



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Car Accidents, Diners, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Hospitals, Road Trips, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:06:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24479188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurntKloverfield/pseuds/BurntKloverfield
Summary: Ben is on an overnight road trip when he stops at a podunk diner in the middle of nowhere, and the light on his soulmate indicator lights up when the waitress brushes his hand. Unfortunately, she's not wearing an indicator herself.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 16
Kudos: 102





	We Don't Match

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dawninthemtn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dawninthemtn/gifts).



> An exchange fic for the prompt "Ben is on an overnight road trip when he stops at a podunk diner in the middle of nowhere and has his soulmate bond kick in with the waitress." This prompt just kept running around my head, and I loved it so much!

In a world where soulmates had become a scientific study with a precise determination, everyone received a bracelet synced to their biometrics that would light up to indicate when a pair of perfectly matched souls came in contact. Soulmates were people who were perfect complements. They fit together and were proven to bring out the best of the other. They thrived together, and being apart from each other once they knew the other existed tore at the other’s soul. Once that connection was made, once their skin came in contact, they were bound. The magnet inside their souls became a homing beacon, always pulling them towards their match. Some said that they could communicate mentally with their soulmate where ever they were but only after the initial connection had been made. That was incredibly rare, even among soulmates. People were just happy to have someone that synced up perfectly. Nobody was quite sure what that connection was made of, but the indicator bracelets could pick up on it.

Ben Solo was certain his indicator was broken. At thirty years old, his bracelet had never even given a flicker. He paid it no heed anymore. He wouldn’t mind trading the bracelet for a wedding ring, but it wouldn’t happen without that little light coming to life. Getting married when the pair weren’t soulmates was unheard of. Not that he had a person to marry.

Ben rubbed his eyes again and squinted through the windshield at the road signs. An unfamiliar town named Jakku boasted food and gas, and glancing at the clock, he decided 2 in the morning was as good a time as any to get off the road and get some food and sleep. 

He had been driving all night, and he needed the rest. He was supposed to be on his way home so that he could be at a meeting for work the next day with his boss. They had just completed a merger, and he needed to report back after he had overseen all the changes. Work consumed nearly all his waking hours, and when he wasn’t in a meeting, he was driving to some other one. His company was known for swooping in and buying up smaller competition, and Ben was the CEO’s right hand man to ensure that each one went smoothly. 

Jakku was a tiny town, and the only open businesses were the ones right off the freeway: a 24 hour diner, a gas station, and a motel. The motel sign read “No Vacancy,” and Ben wondered what would be going on that such a small town had no empty rooms. It didn’t matter. He wasn’t going to get a room. He just needed a couple hours of sleep, and he could get that in his car. He did need food, though, and so he parked in front of the diner and stretched as he got out of the car. 

The restaurant was a typical roadside diner, reminiscent of America in the 50s. There was a single man on a barstool in a trucker’s hat, nursing a coffee and a piece of pie. A booth in the corner was filled with teenagers pouring over books and papers. At first glance, he assumed homework, but their conversation soon revealed that they were planning out some sort of role-playing game. The waitress in a faded yellow uniform was perched on a stool, leaning on the counter with her head resting in her hand, giving off a little snore. 

The man at the bar glanced up at Ben who was taking a seat at the other end of the counter. “She’ll wake up in a bit,” he told Ben. “Poor girl works two jobs, has a shift at the auto shop at 8am. Leave her be.”

Ben raised an eyebrow at him and looked back to the waitress. The three buns down the back of her head were falling loose, and freckles dotted her suntanned cheeks. 

“Oi, Finn!” the man called. A head popped up through the order window to the kitchen, but his yell also startled the waitress awake. “Can you get this man’s order?”

The waitress stumbled from her stool, waving her hand. “No, no, I’m awake. I’ve got him.” She pushed the loose strands of hair from her face and looked up at Ben, patting her hair and then her pockets and her apron, looking for a pen, finally finding it tucked away in her notepad in her apron pocket. “What can I get for you today?”

“Is it too late for a burger?” He asked, offering the only thing he could think of for not having even looked at a menu. 

“Never too late for a burger,” she nodded. “Fries and all the fixins?” Her accent wasn’t Southern, as Ben had expected, but English instead, like she had just walked out of a BBC movie. 

He nodded. “Do you have fry sauce?”

She gave him a look. “We’ve got ketchup.”

He shook his head and hunkered down, putting his forearms up on the counter. “That’s fine.”

“That’ll be right out.” She turned to relay the order to Finn the cook. 

“Could I get a water?” he added.

“Oh, of course, just a sec.” 

Ben busied himself with studying the counter, an easy to clean metal, and fidgeted with his bracelet. It seemed to be flickering, but he blinked, and the indicator was dark. He rubbed his eyes. 

“There you are,” the waitress said, setting down a cup with a clink. “Do you need a straw?” 

Ben shook his head and pulled his hand from his face. This time, the indicator was flickering, and it went dark again. He looked up to find the waitress heading to the far end of the counter to check on the other man. “Actually, yes, I’d like a straw.” 

She turned and pulled a straw from her apron, offering it to him. He slowly reached out his hand with his bracelet, keeping his eyes on the indicator, and the flickering steadied into a solid bright light. 

“Are you alright?” the waitress asked, pressing the straw into his hand, brushing his skin.

“My indicator,” he whispered. He turned his wrist to show her. “It’s lit up.”

She studied him for a moment, then held up both her wrists, both of her bare wrists. “Sorry. Can’t help you there.”

He looked back to his own wrist and moved his arm, but the indicator light stayed lit. “Are you sure? Because I’ve never seen it light up before.” He rubbed his eyes again. “Or maybe I’m just really tired.”

"Maybe it's broken? Don't they sync up to the other bracelets?" 

"It's all a government conspiracy to track our every movement!" the cook shouted from the kitchen.

The waitress--Ben suddenly checked her nametag which read Rey--rolled her eyes. "Sorry about him. Got out of the military a few months ago. He had a pretty bad experience with it all."

Ben nodded. "I understand. I served in the marines."

Rey frowned. "Which ones are those? They're not the ones with the ships, are they? That's the navy."

Finn clunked a plate on the sill and rang the bell to get Rey's attention. She spun to collect and deposit the plate with practiced ease. “You wanted ketchup, didn’t you?" She leaned over and snatched a bottle from one of the shelves below the counter to plop it in front of Ben. 

“Thank you.” He put ketchup on his plate and dipped a fry into it, looking back to his wrist, still lit up. “So, you’ve already found your soulmate?” he asked, glancing up at Rey.

A deep set wave of loneliness rushed through Ben’s chest, making him gasp and drop the fry into the basket. 

“No,” she said, leaning back against the counter behind her. “Don’t need a soulmate. I can take care of myself.” 

He looked up at her, feeling as if he was about to burst into tears at the utter loneliness raging through him. He had known loneliness all his life, but this wasn’t his. “You’re so lonely,” he whispered. 

Her hazel eyes flashed up to his. Confusion. Worry. Intrigue. Hesitancy. Hope.

“Don’t be afraid,” he breathed, staring back at her. “I feel it, too.”

She was the one to break eye contact. “You’re tired, sir. Go ahead and finish your food. It’s on the house.” She turned away from him to take a coffee pot to top off the other patron’s cup.

His eyes stayed on her, pleading with the universe for her to be his soulmate. She walked back to him but only to replace the coffee pot. 

“How do you know?” he wondered.

She paused, refusing to look at him. “You have to have a bracelet to have a soulmate.”

“And you don’t have one?”

“Never did. Never will. Don’t need one.” 

“What if we were?”

She finally looked back to him, but the pains in her heart were mirrored in his own. “What would we do if we were soulmates? You’re clearly not from around here. Why don’t you finish your food and get out of here?”

“Come home with me,” he pleaded. 

Her face was stoic, but her mind was racing, and Ben could feel every word in his soul. Who are you? Why would you say that to a waitress? I’m not a stray dog to take home. My whole life is here: I just can’t up and leave. But what would I really be leaving? Would I be able to leave? I don’t even know his name.

“Ben,” he whispered. “My name is Ben Solo.”

“I’m not doing this,” she said, shaking her head as she pulled up apron up and over her head. “Finn, I’m not feeling well. Do you mind running the front?”

“Go take care of yourself, Peanut!” The chef called back from the kitchen. 

Rey disappeared into a backroom and then reappeared in a jacket with a bag over her shoulder, stalking out of the diner, keeping her eyes forward. Ben, though, kept his eyes on her, swiveling on his stool to watch her leave. She paused just outside the door, and a surge of emotion hit Ben’s heart, finally wrenching tears from his eyes, mimicking the ones she was trying to hide. 

“Don’t you dare go after her,” the chef scolded. 

Ben looked up at the young man, now standing in front of him with his arms folded over his chest. 

“She’s not going to fall for whatever fancy scam you’ve got running with that fake bracelet.”

“Why would I fake this?”

“You don’t think we all know the stories? Trafficking pretty girls for whatever sick games you’re playing.”

Ben shook his head and looked back towards the door, but Rey had disappeared from sight. “I wouldn’t…” He sighed and shuffled through his pockets for his wallet and slapped a twenty down beside his forgotten food. “I better get going.” 

“I’m watching you,” Finn warned as Ben left the diner. 

Ben didn’t respond, just feeling pain and loneliness and dashed hopes. Getting into his car, he looked back at his indicator bracelet, still lit up. He tugged at the clasp and pulled it off, glaring at the tan line and the slowly dimming light. 

* * *

Rey stalked to her truck and drove through the dark streets to her little apartment attached to the local junkyard. She knew her boss, Unkar Plutt, would be passed out by now, and so she didn’t bother trying to be too quiet as she headed to bed. She worked nights at the diner and days at the junkyard and picked up odd jobs in between. 

Turning on the light in her little apartment and looking around, her shoulders drooped. It was a single room with a bathroom, with a worn futon serving as couch and bed, and her kitchen was really just a mini fridge with a microwave on top. She started to tear up. Should she have gone ahead and taken the risk of going with that man, with Ben? He had seemed so earnest, and she could have sworn that the emotions and thoughts that she had felt hadn’t been all hers. Unfortunately, living in an interstate truck stop meant that she had heard and seen every attempt at unsavory characters trying to take advantage of a poor girl. 

She locked the door behind her, stripped out of her uniform, and plunged into the shower, trying to get the smell of fries out of her hair. 

She had been stuck in that town her entire life, and she had never had a bracelet. She’d been left at the truck stop, by accident she always told herself, and the man who ran the town’s junkyard had picked her up and told her she could have food and a place to sleep if she helped him get into the tight places he couldn’t reach. And that’s where she got stuck. She was saving up to get out of there, to find some better place to live, to find somewhere Plutt couldn’t reach her. 

This could have been her ticket out. But what if they really weren’t soulmates? What if she didn’t have a bracelet because she never would have a soulmate? Not that she deserved one. Her own parents had left her. How would anyone want her?

She dried off and dressed and plopped face first onto the futon, falling asleep before she could turn off the lights. 

* * *

Rey woke up far too early. It was still dark outside, even though she had left the lights on. She glanced at her phone, seeing that she still had hours to go until her alarm to get ready for her junkyard job. She begrudgingly got up to turn out the light but froze. What had woken her was the sound of another person’s snores. She now saw the man from the diner, asleep, leaning against her mini fridge.

“Get out!” She stormed over to him and shoved him. “How dare you! You creep! You followed me all the way home! You stalker!”

He jerked awake and stumbled to his feet, staring at her. He looked around and shook his head. “I didn’t follow you!” He held his hands palm out to her, to calm her. 

"How did you even get in here?" She gestured to the door.

"Get where?" His eyes flit around and fell back on her. "I just slept in my car in the parking lot?"

The confusion emanating from him suddenly struck her, just as her anger sunk into him.

His eyes went wide. "You're not here. You're not here at the diner parking lot. You're where ever home is for you."

She frowned and folded her arms over her chest. "What are you on?"

"No, I promise, I didn't follow you. Come down to the diner, and you will see that I am right here, there." He shook his head. "I always thought that being able to communicate just meant that we could hear each other's thoughts, not see each other."

"This is a soulmate thing?" Rey asked weakly. She looked around for her jacket, still in her pajamas. 

"I think so."

"You can't see my apartment?"

"No, just you."

"Prove it."

"What?"

"Prove that you can't see me apartment. Where's the door?"

Ben stared at her as if she was crazy.

Rey stared back and slowly laughed. "Ok, I guess that's proof enough. You wouldn't know." She shrugged on her jacket. "If you're still in the diner parking lot, is Finn still working?"

This time, Ben looked to the side. "The cook, right? Yeah. Mopping, it looks like."

She nodded and then lit up. She sat on her futon and took her phone from its plug to make a call. 

Ben looked at her warily, now slowly feeling the chill of the early morning air. He glanced over at the diner again, and the cook perked up and rushed around the counter to pick up a phone. 

"Hi, Finn," Rey said, staring at Ben as she talked to her coworker. "Is that guy still at the diner?"

Ben glanced at the diner again, where the cook came to the glass doors to peer out. Ben gave a wave to him and looked back to Rey.

“Yeah? Waved at you, huh?” Rey eyed Ben. “Hey, I need to take a couple days off. Do you mind covering? Thanks. I owe you one.” She hung up at stared up at Ben. “So we’re really soulmates.”

Ben’s shoulders relaxed, and he nodded. 

“What do we do now?”

Ben glanced back towards the diner and got into his car, but to Rey, it looked like he was taking a seat beside her on the futon. “You want out of this town?”

Rey shuffled. “I really do, but where are you going? Where are you from?”

“Coruscant. I’ve got work tomorrow. Or today.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. 

She took a deep breath in and nodded. “Then I guess we should get going.” She stood and walked past him.

“What?” 

“I’m coming with you. We’re going to make sure we get you home in time for work. I’m going to come with you, and we’re going to figure out this soulmate thing.” She started throwing clothes into a bag. “I’ll meet you back at the diner?”

“Do you want me to pick you up?”

She shook her head. “I won’t be long.”

“Are you going to come back to Jakku?” 

Rey shook her head. “I actually don’t think I will. I mean there’s Finn and Maz at the diner, but other than that, I don’t have anything to lose.” She wasn’t sure if it was the lack of sleep getting to her or the giddiness of having a soulmate, or if the glee was running over from Ben, but she was excited and determined to go with him, because anywhere with him had to be better than what she had here. 

Her words, though, caused Ben to pause. What did she mean, she didn’t have anything to lose? What sort of life had she been living? He didn’t say anything as he watched her pack. 

He blinked, and their connection closed, and she was gone from his view. He frowned and rubbed his eyes, scanning his surroundings, the inside of his car, behind him, out the windows to the parking lot. He glanced at the time. Half past 4 in the morning. He felt awake now, excited, ready to take his soulmate home with him, to give her everything, to ensure that she wouldn’t have to scrape by and work two jobs, to prove that this wasn’t some joke or trap and that they really were soulmates. 

He glanced back to his discarded indicator bracelet. He knew they ran off of some sort of connection to the body, residual body heat and whatever that mystical link that formed between soulmates. He put his bracelet back on, and it lit up again. The unwavering light shined back at him, letting him know that that soulmate connection truly had been formed. 

* * *

Rey pulled into the diner parking lot, tucking her old beat up truck in the back corner. She smiled at Ben who had gotten out of his sleek black car the moment he spied her truck on the street. She patted the dashboard of her trusty old truck, briefly checking the glove box for anything she might need. She gathered her things, a single duffel bag and her sunglasses from her glovebox, and approached Ben.

He smiled at her as if he couldn’t believe she was really there. He popped his own trunk and moved his bags to the side so that she had room for her things. “Is that all…?” he wondered. 

She nodded. “I don’t have much.”

“What about your truck?”

“It’s staying. It won’t handle the drive to Coruscant.” She nodded back towards the diner. “Finn needs something anyhow. I’ll be right back.”

Ben shut the trunk as he watched her dash back into the diner, pummel into Finn to hug him, press the key into his hand, and dash out before he could object. Ben opened the passenger’s side door for her, and she gave him a smile, wondering if he was always like that, always a gentleman to hold a door open for her, and easily slid into the passenger’s seat.

When he got in on his own side and turned on the car, he asked, “Do you have everything?”

Rey nodded. “I think so. My name is Rey,” she added, looking at him across the center console. 

“Ben Solo. Do you have a last name?”

She shook her head. “Just Rey.”

Ben wondered again at what sort of life she had lived. He took them out of Jakku and onto the freeway as the beginnings of a sunrise started to glow over the horizon. 

“Look, Ben, I really don’t do this normally, but I’ve never seen anyone pull off …” Rey waved her hands, trying to find the words. She settled for vaguely gesturing to him. “I never worried about soulmates, and I don’t just wander off with strange men, but I don’t know how to explain what’s going on between us, and soulmates is the best word for it.”

Ben nodded as he stared out the windshield. “I’d started to give up that I’d ever find mine.” He glanced down at his indicator bracelet and back up at the road. “Why don’t you have one? If you don’t mind me asking?”

“I was left at the truck stop. Never really got put into the system,” she said with a shrug. 

“Didn’t you get them in school? There was this big assembly my junior year, and for the next week everybody was touching, trying to get their light to flicker.”

“I didn’t go to school.” She didn’t let him react, already desperate to prove herself. “I taught myself how to read and write and numbers. It was all I needed to know, and Plutt didn’t care as long as I was helping out at his junkyard.”

Ben wanted to punch something. How does anyone just let a child not go to school? A surge of pride joined his seething emotions. Even though she didn’t have her parents, even though she never went to school, she taught herself how to read and write. This woman had managed to teach herself through what must have been a terrible childhood. 

“Hey, it’s alright,” she said, eyeing his white knuckled grip on the steering wheel. “I was always able to take care of myself.”

“A child shouldn’t have to take care of themselves. They should have someone who cared about them.”

“You sound like you talk from experience.”

He glanced over and back. “My problems sound pathetic compared to yours. My parents are fine and alive and provided for me, even though they were always busy with their own things.” He sighed. “Rey, I know I’m taking you away from everything you’ve ever known, but I promise, I’m going to take care of you.”

“I really can take care of myself.”

“I know you can, but you won’t have to anymore.”

“What if I do want to go to school?”

“I can afford it, and you’ll go.”

“What if I want to work?”

“Anywhere you’d like. You’ll never have to, but you can do anything you’d like to do.”

“What do you expect to happen?”

Ben quirked his head as he thought. “We get to know each other. You stay with me, and we figure out how this soulmate bond works. I make sure you’re taken care of. You get every opportunity you could imagine.”

Rey studied his profile in the growing morning light. “What happens if we don’t fall in love?”

Ben frowned. It was a thought he would have never considered. He was slow to answer. “Then, I will still make sure you’re taken care of, and we stay friends, who happen to share a bond. You won’t have to stay with me. I’ll make sure you have a vehicle that could drive you anywhere. Still make sure you can go to school or work somewhere that makes you happy.”

Rey nodded and shifted in her seat. “What if we’re not actually soulmates?”

There was silence for a long long time before Ben asked, “Would you like to get a bracelet?”

“Aren’t they expensive if they’re not government issued in school?”

“Replacements are.” He offered her his wrist to examine. “This is my third. I broke my first one, and a few years ago, I wanted to make sure that mine was actually working since it hadn’t even flickered before like other people’s would, so I got another one to just make sure I wasn’t walking right past without even noticing. Your first is always free. It’s cruel not to know.”

She carefully took his wrist in her hands, examining the dark shiny plastic and the light set into it. “So you chose the black?”

“The standard white isn’t my style,” he said with a shrug. 

“What do you need to do to get one?”

“Doctor’s visit, biometrics taken, wrist measured, wait for the pieces to get put together, walk out with a thing on your wrist.”

“Can you take them off?”

“Yeah, whenever you like. Go ahead.”

He glanced at her as she fiddled with his bracelet, and when he looked back up at the road, the sun was coming over the horizon and blinded him. He winced away, trying to see the road beneath the light. The moment the semi truck blocked the sun on the curve in the road, he was too close, and they were deafened by the roar of the collision.

* * *

When Rey opened her eyes, she was in a dimly lit room and was sore all over. She tried to figure out where she was, moving her head slowly from side to side. She caught sight of a machine beside her, and she vaguely recognized it as some sort of monitor that would be seen in a hospital. She frowned and tried to sit up, groaning. Her body hurt everywhere, and she moved her hand to brush an itch away from her face, only to find bandages. 

Footsteps sounded, and a nurse appeared in the doorway with a smile. “You’re awake.” She entered the room and turned the lights up a little so it wasn’t so dark, but so it also wouldn’t blind her. “I’m Kaydel. I’m one of the nurses.” She started to bustle around the room and ended up at Rey’s side, marking down vitals on a clipboard. “Let me know if you’re ever in any pain or if you need anything.” She gave a smile. “I’m happy you’re awake.” She glanced over the sheet. “Do you have a name?”

She nodded, “I’m Rey.” 

Kaydel took note. “Last name?”

“I don’t really have one.”

Kaydel raised an eyebrow. “Okay. Pleasure to meet you.”

“What happened?”

“Car accident, Dear,” Kaydel cooed.

She paused as she shifted through her last few memories of leaving her hometown with her soulmate, but she didn’t remember seeing what they crashed into. She had been paying attention to his indicator bracelet. “The man that was with me, Ben Solo, is he okay?” 

“Alive, definitely, but last I heard, he was still getting taken care of. You don’t have a lot of injuries, just your head really, and I fully expect bruising to show up where your seatbelt was, but you were mainly alright.” The nurse wrapped a tool around Rey’s arm and puffed it up, taking note, and then pulled it away. “Were you two on a road trip?”

Rey nodded as Kaydel bustled around to the other side of the bed to check the bandages. 

“Stay still for just a minute,” she instructed. 

“Where are we? What city?” 

“Coruscant. You two were flown in when you weren’t responding,” Kaydel nodded. “It will sting just for a moment, but I need to change these bandages. Tell me about your road trip.”

“He was headed back to work,” Rey started, wincing as the bandage was pulled away. “He came into my diner, and his indicator lit up.”

Joy exploded over Kaydel’s face. “You found your soulmate!” She continued to clean Rey’s head. 

She nodded. “I think so. I don’t have an indicator.”

Kaydel’s eyes went wide. “You don’t know for sure? I couldn’t stand not knowing, oh my goodness.” She applied new bandages. “I’ll let you know about him the moment I get word about how he’s doing.” She busied herself again around the room. “You’re here for a little bit for observation because of the head injury, make sure that that’s healing up well enough, especially since you were out for so long. Your things are there,” she gestured to a plastic bag on the chair. “Your clothes, your phone that was in your pocket. Let me get that for you, actually. I think I have a charger you could use. Do you have anybody that you’d like to call?” She handed Rey the cellphone, which was in good condition, and the only crack was the one that had been there for years from dropping it once. 

Rey turned on the phone and waited for a moment. The nurse left the room, and Rey glanced up and back down at her phone. It found its signal, and notifications filled the screen. Text messages, phone calls, voice mails, from everyone. Finn, Maz, and Plutt filled each notification, and fear seized Rey’s stomach. 

She had been so caught up with her soulmate, no, with the possibility of a soulmate, that she hadn’t given those closest to her the proper consideration, the proper respect for standing by her when she needed them most. And she could have died without any of them knowing. She was so stupid! Why had she done that? Why had she just jumped in? This had been a huge mistake. They could be soulmates, but she had ended up in a car wreck with a man she had just met. 

The phone started to vibrate, and Unkar Plutt flashed across the caller ID. 

Rey stared at the name. The man had made sure she had been fed and had a roof over her head, but it had never been enough. He had kept her under his thumb, putting her in dangerous situations to work at his junkyard. He was certainly only calling to scream at her, to summon her back, to berate her for not coming into work. 

The phone went dark as the call ended, and Rey’s shoulders relaxed. She hadn’t realized that she had tensed up. 

That’s why she left. This unknown man who claimed to be her soulmate was the better option. Jakku was a dead end town where she feared for her safety from Plutt, and where the little bit of freedom the diner gave her would never get her out of Jakku. 

Rey woke up her phone and checked the time and date. Approximately 2pm the following day. She had been unconscious for over 24 hours. 

Her mind wandered to Ben, feeling sorry that he would have missed work. She hoped that he was alright. There was no way she would be able to afford the hospital bills from this. She couldn’t stand the thought now of returning to Jakku. She had had the hope of something new and bright. Ben was her way out. And it might have just been ripped out from under her. 

She found herself crying and shaking, and she thumped her phone face down in her lap. She would call everyone later. Now, she had too many thoughts and emotions demanding her energy. She had just taken the biggest risk she had ever taken in her entire life, and it could have been for nothing.

* * *

“Sir,” a nurse called, “sir, he is not allowed visitors yet!” 

The man marched forward, much quicker than he looked. His mustard yellow suit gave his already pale complexion a sickly hue, but his face held an intimidating aura. 

“Mr. Snoke,” his assistant sighed, dashing after him as he gave an apologetic grimace to the nurse. 

Snoke disregarded Hux, barging into the hospital room where a doctor was working on the wound crossing Ben Solo’s face. 

“Sir, you can’t be in here,” a nurse insisted, trying to usher Snoke from the room. 

He gave her a cold stare but obediently took a step backwards out of the room. She shivered and shut the door. 

Snoke took a seat on the nearest chair in the hallway and stared forwards. 

“Mr. Snoke,” Hux sighed, standing in front of his employer. “I understand the weight of losing Ben Solo for this company, but I really must inquire why we are here in the first place. The medical professionals have this well taken care of.”

“You are free to leave, Armitage,” Snoke sneered, “but don’t return to work if you do.”

Hux pursed his lips and took a place leaning against the wall besides Snoke. 

* * *

“Rey?” Ben’s voice roused Rey from her fitful sleep.

She opened her eyes, trying to pick out Ben in the low light of her hospital room. 

“Rey! It is so good to see that you’re awake!”

She sat up and looked around, trying to find where he was. She seemed to be alone in the room. “Ben?”

“I’m here.”

“I can’t see you.”

“Oh, seeing each other must be sporadic. Except I can see you.”

“Are you okay?”

“I feel great. I wouldn’t have known I was in an accident if I didn’t remember the car going under that semi. Rey, I am incredibly sorry. I should have been paying better attention. Are you okay? You have bandages on your head.”

“They say I’ll be okay, but they still want to keep me for observation with the head injury. I was out for over a day.”

* * *

Snoke suddenly rose to his feet and strode down the hallway. 

Armitage Hux sighed and followed. Mr. Snoke was the CEO and brutal about getting his way on everything. There was no use arguing with him. This, though, was bordering on eccentric behavior. Snoke was not eccentric. He was cold, cruel, and calculating, but never eccentric. 

The moment the meeting started the previous day, and there was no trace of Ben Solo, Snoke had left the boardroom and dialed his number. No answer, and Hux watched his employer return to his office and pull up several programs on his computer. 

The rest of that day, Hux had been tasked with making intermediate calls to Solo’s cell and to monitor the usage of his company credit card. Both had proved fruitless as the next day, a phone call had come in from the police department, informing Snoke’s assistant that their number had been assigned as an emergency contact in Solo’s phone, and they were informing them of his condition and location. The moment Hux alerted Snoke, he was ordered to call a car and accompany him to the hospital. 

Armitage Hux admired Snoke’s business skills, and Ben Solo was Snoke’s prized tool. Solo could conquer even the most stubborn mergers, the most resistant to sell. Snoke kept Solo on a tight schedule, always on the move, always with a purpose, and Solo was always focused on whatever goal Snoke had set before him. 

Hux had no idea what Snoke was doing, now, though, as he wound through confusing identical corridors, pausing at a door to a dimmed room. 

“They say I’ll be okay, but they still want to keep me for observation with the head injury. I was out for over a day.”

Hux frowned. He did not recognize the young woman’s voice, and it sounded like she was in the middle of a conversation. 

“How about you? Are you okay? The nurse told me she would let me know when you woke up.”

Hux looked up at Snoke’s face, noticing the growing smirk. There was no response to her questions, but she paused for answers.

"I'm glad you're okay, Ben."

Snoke rapped on the doorframe. "Hello, Dear," he cooed, and Hux's stomach immediately fell. 

"Can I help you?" the lady asked. 

Snoke entered the room, and Hux moved forward to hover in the doorway and watch what Snoke was about to do.

"I believe you can. You've recently found your soulmate, have you not?"

"Sir, I don't have a bracelet or a soulmate. Would you please leave?" 

"Now, now, if you didn't have a bracelet, of course you wouldn't know. Your soulmate bond is the most tangible one I've ever seen." 

"It's time for you to leave."

The young woman leaned over to reach the button to get the nurse's attention, but Snoke shot his arm out and grasped something, but to Hux, it only looked like he had taken a handful of air at shoulder height. 

The young woman crumpled. "What are you doing?" she cried as she clutched her chest. 

"Ripping out your little soulmate bond. I have worked too hard to lose that keen Solo to a waif of a girl."

Horror dropped into Hux's stomach, and a terrifying memory came flooding back. He never wore his bracelet, certainly not while he was working, but after taking the company car to a mechanic and feeling an immediate attraction to the little woman who had tuned everything with impressive timing, he had had the worst night of his life, feeling as if his world had fallen apart around him. His psychiatrist had said that it had simply been a depressive episode, and when he requested a health day off, Snoke had given him it without discussion or protest, which had never been Snoke's way of dealing with ill employees. Every time he tried on his indicator, just to check of course, it was always the disappointing unlit light. Snoke always seemed to have an uncanny ability to pick out those without a soulmate to bring into his company. Hux now wondered if that was by design.

"Mr. Snoke," Hux interrupted, striding forward to set a hand on his shoulder. "We need to leave."

Snoke spun and smacked Hux across his cheek. "Thank you for your service. I no longer require your assistance," Snoke hissed. 

Hux took a hold of Snoke's wrist. "Sir, we should leave."

The distraction had loosened Snoke's hold on the invisible bond between Ben and Rey, and Rey felt that relief, no matter how brief it was. She took that opportunity to press the button, and Kaydel appeared in the doorway. 

"Excuse me, Sirs, I have to ask you to leave," she called sternly, waving down the hall. 

"We won't be long," Snoke glowered, lowering his wrist in Hux's grasp. 

"I'm sorry, but you will have to leave now," Kaydel repeated, giving a nod to Rey behind them. 

A male nurse appeared behind Kaydel, staring down the men. "Let me show you the way out."

At this point, Snoke finally obeyed, pulling his arm away from Hux. 

Hux only paused to say, "I am very sorry for this disturbance," before also heading out into the hallway.

Kaydel watched them leave before coming to Rey's side. She was still holding her chest. 

"Are you alright?"

Rey slowly shook her head. "That man said he was ripping away my bond. People can't do that, can they?"

Kaydel patted her hand, "not that I know of. I've seen a couple horror movies like that, but I think they're just horror movies."

Another nurse tapped on the door and nodded to Kaydel, gesturing to speak with her privately. She went into the hallway, and Rey ignored them as she focused on her pounding heart. 

"Rey, are you feeling okay to walk?" Kaydel asked. "Your Ben woke up."

Rey nodded and eagerly started to push down the blanket. 

"Let me get you unhooked from these machines. Your vitals have been alright, except for the fright that old man gave you."

Rey happily nodded and bounded to her feet. She looked over the hospital gown she was wearing and checked what was underneath. 

"These gowns are getting better and cover more for you," Kaydel assured, going to her side and offering her arm. "In case you get woozy."

Rey took her arm and tried her best not to rush the nurse who was making sure Rey didn't over exert herself. 

They passed through a set of double doors, and they could immediately hear yelling. 

"Let me see her!"

Rey looked to Kaydel.

"Third door on the right, room 207."

Rey let go of Kaydel's arm and bounded down the hall, not caring that she still had a headache and that her muscles were already sore. 

"You need to lay back down!" a doctor ordered ad Rey came to the doorway. 

Ben was standing beside the bed, trying to find all the monitors attached to him so he could remove him. There was a bandage across his face, covering his eye and cheek, and traveling down his neck and chest. 

"Ben, I'm here."

He looked up, and immediately, his entire body relaxed. "Are you okay?"

She nodded. 

"New soulmates?" the doctor asked.

Ben nodded. 

"Congratulations. It will tone down after a while, but, Ben, you need to remember that you have a gaping wound across your face, and you need to take it easy." The doctor pressed his hand against Ben's shoulder to push him back onto the bed. 

Ben obeyed this time, sitting down. 

Rey crossed the room and joined him on the bed.

The doctor nodded and left the room. 

Kaydel smiled at them. "Rey, you're in room 241 when you're ready to go back. You can ask one of the nurses to walk you back. I have other patients I need to check on."

"Thank you, Kaydel."

"You're welcome. Congratulations." She smiled and left the room. 

Ben suddenly pulled Rey into his arms, holding her in a tight hug. "Are you alright? I thought I was talking to you, then I thought I hear my boss, and then you were in pain. The doctor said I was still out until I woke up screaming."

"I don't understand what happened. I was talking to you, and then an old man and redheaded man in suits came in, and the old man told me he didn't want to loose you to the soulmate bond. He said he wanted to rip it apart, and everything hurt so bad."

Ben held her tighter, tucking her head under his chin. "I'm so sorry." The descriptions sounded like his boss and his boss's assistant, though it made no sense. He had never suspected that Snoke would have any ability to meddle with soulmate bonds, but that was what it sounded like. 

A short knock came from the open door, and Armitage Hux stood in the doorway. 

"It's good to see you awake, Solo," he said with a nod. "And congratulations on your soulmate bond. I'm sorry again," he nodded to Rey, "about that. Solo, I've resigned, and I suggest you do so as well. I have reason to believe that he has been manipulating his employees' soulmate bonds, and I have someone I need to go speak to. Don't go back to Snoke. Feel better." And with a nod, he turned to leave. 

Ben frowned and squeezed her again. 

"What kind of man were you working for?"

Ben shook his head. "I don't think anyone knew he could do that. He was just a businessman."

"He was terrifying."

"I am so sorry he did that." He released her and offered her his hand to hold.

She entangled her fingers with his. 

"It looks like I'll be looking for a new job."

Rey nodded. "will you be alright?"

"I have money set aside. We will be okay."

Rey smiled, though she didn't look back up at him. "You were yelling when I came."

"I was panicked. I had just woken up, and I didn't know where you were. Something was wrong, and I could feel your pain."

"I'm okay now."

"You're scared."

"So are you."

"I don't know if I will ever get used to being able to feel what you feel all the time."

"All the time?"

"You were so sad and lonely the entire time after you left the diner. It only calmed down once you fell asleep."

"I wonder how much of what I'm feeling is you."

Ben laughed and squeezed her hand. He looked down to his other hand, where his bracelet was still lit up. "Since we're here, do you want to see for sure if we're a match?"

* * *

It took a day as they were released from the hospital and had to make a specific appointment, and they had to get their bags from Ben's very wrecked car, and him getting them both back to his apartment where they ordered in food and promptly fell asleep, but they were soon back at the hospital, this time in a specialist's office, sitting side by side, waiting for the results. Ben had taken the doctor aside to ask about what Snoke had tried and if that was even real while Rey's blood and vitals were taken. 

He was informed that it sounded farfetched, but not impossible, as there was very old folk tales that depicted that exact same thing. Unfortunately there was no research about the phenomenon as it was so rare. 

When Rey came back, they returned to waiting side by side in companionable silence. 

The specialist came in later with a bracelet in standard issue white plastic. 

"We have the results already from both of you," he said, "but we still like to announce it with the bracelet. Rey, come here a moment?" Rey obeyed and allowed him to put the bracelet on her wrist. It immediately lit up once the sensors touched her skin. "You have already made that connection with your soulmate," the specialist smiled, securing the bracelet. 

Rey spun to show off the glowing light for Ben, who smiled in return with such relief. 

The specialist went to the computer in the room and pulled up the technical results. "We also wanted to show you something." He waited for them to come to look at the screen. "These are your soulmate registers, and the connection you two have here," he pointed at graph, "is so in sync that we had to test your samples again because we were not sure if there was a second line at all." He swiveled in his chair. "You two are the single most perfectly matched pair I have ever seen." 

Ben looked down at Rey who was already leaning against his arm. 

"If you need help jumping into the soulmate bond, there are therapists, but it looks like you two will be just fine."

Rey laughed. "This is the best I've ever been."

And it was. They took their newfound bond in strides, helping each other find new jobs, getting married as soon as they could, and moving into a comfortable home that fit the pair of them very well. Ben and Rey even helped testify against Snoke for the case that Armitage Hux had put forward. Their lives together now proved that everything they heard about Soulmates were true. They helped each other become the best people they could be, and they grew stronger together than they could have ever imagined. Rey helped Ben reconnect with his family. Ben helped Rey grow a family of her own, even sharing his own last name with her. Ben fulfilled his promise of always taking care of her, but Rey surprised him by taking care of him just as much. They had been lonely their entire lives, but they knew now that they had only been so lonely because up until that point, they had been missing part of their soul. 

**Author's Note:**

> Looking for more? Check out my [profile](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurntKloverfield/profile) or my [Reylo Ficlets.](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/ReyloFiclets)


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